The Crusades

The Chicago Tribune’s recent roundup of local top chefs’ favorite summer hot-dog recipes—a beef hot dog with spicy tomatillo salsa, a Greek-style lamb hot dog with tzatziki sauce—should please Scott Gold, the meat-celebrating blogger and author of “The Shameless Carnivore: A Manifesto for Meat Lovers.” One of his core principles is, Be discerning; early in his book, he urges readers to reclaim their dignity from fast-food purveyors. (His description of what an airline passes off as a cheeseburger is enough to discourage one from ever eating on a plane.) American meat-eaters tend to an indiscriminate approach: consider the number of hot dogs consumed on the Fourth of July, and the fact that Burger King has decided to extend its hours, starting this Friday. On the other hand, the Washington Postreports that demand for grass-fed beef is increasing.

Gold spent a month eating a different kind of meat each day, including offal, and in the course of a serious discussion about food choices—“Vegetarians also get attacked on a regular basis,” a friend tells him, referring to holiday meals—his book forces the squeamish among us to confront things we’d rather forget (for example, that barbecued ribs are referred to as “skeletal meats”). Gold suggests that vegetarians and carnivores can live in peace if they don’t try to evangelize. The formula for health, he writes, is the same for all: “Eat right, eat less, and exercise more.”—Lauren Porcaro

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